Part 4
"What exactly is your purpose, Chain User? Why seek revenge after the Spiders so much?" Kuroro's questions were more taunting than information seeking.
"To make you understand the pain you have caused," the Kurata answered bluntly. The man with the vacant black eyes snickered.
"Death does not affect me," he said. "You should know this by now. What I don't gain from, I don't do. What I benefit from, I don't count the cost. Even if you kill me and all of my comrades, I will not feel a thing."
"Ah, but you will," said Kurapika, softly.
The weapon he had now chosen would have struck fear into the heart of any Hunter, but the Kurata only eyed it warily. Pale moonlight seemed to be sucked in by the eerie, neon-green bubbling katana, as though it were an acidic blackhole. Kurapika flicked his dousing chain at it experimentally, and his eyes widened in surprised as the end of the chain melted where it made contact with the blade.
Not a weapon to be sliced with, he decided. The problem was...how to get rid of it? The only hope would be by the handle, but of course Kuroro had already taken that into consideration.
Hmm. Then what to do? Kurapika, still undisturbed, considered the situation, not as life-threatening, but as a problem as how to recieve the least amount of damage.
As far as he could tell, Kuroro was restricted to the use of one weapon or tool from his black book at a time. Otherwise he would have taken advantage of the time he had used Zetsu before to avoid the sun-dragon.
Furthermore, it was clear that Kuroro was trying to buy time to recuperate from the Nen-draining hail. If not, he would be already attacking. The moon, straight above at this time of night, cast a sheer shadow on his face, making his eyes as black chasms. He could not read the other man's thoughts at all. No matter. There was a way, even without predicting his opponents' intentions.
He had done so before.
As he thought, the two men circled each other warily, like two vultures that, having no carrion to eat, hungrily prey on each other.
"Tell me, Chain-User," Kuroro said, again in a conversational tone, but slightly tinted with tension, "what does it feel like to be on the rising edge of your powers?"
"What does it feel like to be in the decline?" Kurapika retorted. "To know that you have reached the limits of your abilities, that there is no further route?"
"I thought you would be able to answer that one," he smirked.
A grim smile. "I think we both know that I can only get stronger from here," he answered quietly. "And the curtain has fallen for you. Just as it fell on your comrades."
A sudden look of rage, distorted grotesquely by the shadowed moonlight, spread over Kuroro's features and he began running, full speed, toward the Kurata.
Checkmate successful, Kurapika thought, moving to avoid the attack, simultaneously flinging his Chain Jail.
Thrust. Duck. Jab. Clink. Sizzle. Jump. Dash. Thrust. Duck and kick. Block, parry, thrust.
Two backflips. Flung chain. Dodge, close distance. Thrust. And then...
The smell, horrid smell, of rancidly burning flesh.
Kurapika screamed as he hurled himself back to where Kuroro could only stand watching, panting, victorious, the katana already dissipating in his hands. He jumped up, scrambling, onto a higher surface and sunk there, accessing the damage, which he already knew was terrible.
Pain, pain, oh, pain. The feeling of his own side burnt like that...the black burn that spread over the garments near the wound like a fungus or a disease.
He tore off his outer garment, leaving only his tanktop shirt underneath, and looked at the side. He hissed as he saw the redness of the burnt flesh around the gaping wound. He used the cross chain, just enough to close the wound, but not heal it completely. He needed the extra Nen now. He could deal with the smothering pain, just long enough to accomplish his goals.
Beneath him, standing on the concrete ground, he could hear Kuroro's roaring laughter, pitiless, humorless.
Kurapika stood up, also smiling. "Yes, you should laugh," he said. "It is the last chance you will get to do so."
End laughter. Kuroro gritted his teeth, intent on what the younger man was saying. Somehow, even now, he could sense that something was wrong. He couldn't put his finger on it.
"You, you, the head of the Spiders, should have learned from the death of your friends," said Kurapika, jumping down from his position and walking, fearlessly closer. He held out his right hand.
His middle finger was pointed directly at Kuroro, and there was no chain...and then there was...and it was already wrapped around his body.
A grim smile. The smile of the Grim Reaper. And then, just as he had with Uvogin, Kurapika struck the man, using full force of Reinforcement.
It was not the first time he had been hit that way by the Chain User. He could feel exactly how much stronger he had become, physically, since the previous incident at Yorkshin City. He doubled over, ribs cracking under the punch. Then he flew backwards as a side kick hit him directly in the solar plexus.
The world was blinking black stars at him. He wheezed, coughed, tried to catch his breath.
But the Chain User was approaching. The end was near.